The top-ranked Hobart hockey team was recognized with four of the five top SUNYAC awards announced this afternoon. These awards come a week after the Statesmen put a league-high eight on the All-SUNYAC teams.
 
Senior Damon Beaver was recognized with the Herb Hammond Player of the Year Award and the Goaltender of the Year Award. Junior Conor Lally was named the Defensive Player of the Year and Head Coach Mark Taylor and his assistant, Alec Marsh, and Hockey Operations Assistants Joel Stoneham '26 and Victor Cutting '28 were recognized as the Coaching Staff of the Year.
 
This is the fifth year in a row and the 11th time overall that Taylor has been named conference coach of the year. He guided the Statesmen to a 27-0-0 record entering Saturday's SUNYAC Championship Game. The Statesmen went 18-0-0 in league play, securing their fifth straight conference regular season title. It is Hobart's seventh straight 20-win season. The 18 conference wins match the program record set last year. Taylor's charges are first in the nation in scoring offense (5.44), scoring defense (0.93) and winning percentage (1.000). The Statesmen are second in the nation in power-play percentage (.343) and fourth in penalty-killing percentage (.908).
 
 
Beaver, who was named the 2025 New England Hockey Conference Goaltender of the Year, is the first Hobart goalie to earn two conference goaltender of the year awards. The Whitby, Ontario, native is 17-0-0 this season with a 0.95 GAA, a .952 save percentage and six shutouts. He is first in the nation in all three categories. His 17 wins and six shutouts are tied for fourth on Hobart's single-season lists, trailing only his own records of 18 and seven, respectively. Beaver has made 20 or more saves seven times this season.
 
One of the best goalies in program history, Beaver is 70-4-1 for his career with a 1.01 GAA, a .956 save percentage and 25 shutouts. He holds the program record for both wins and shutouts and is tied for the most shutouts in NCAA Division III history. Beaver's 70 career wins are tied for sixth on the NCAA Division III career list. He was named the 2023 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player and was the NEHC Rookie of the Year. Beaver has been named to the NCAA All-Tournament team three times.
 
The Herb Hammond Award is named after former Oswego and Plattsburgh coach Herb Hammond. He compiled a 228-139-9 record, earning the Division III Coach of the Year Award in 1982. He then went on to coach at Brown before becoming a scout in the NHL for 11 seasons. Beaver is the third goalie since the introduction of the SUNYAC Goaltender of the Year Award in 2016-17 to win both the Goaltender of the Year Award and the Herb Hammond Award in the same season.
 
Lally is the fifth Statesman to be named a conference's defensive player of the year. A shutdown defenseman, he plays on Hobart's top defensive pair and is a big part of the reason that the Statesmen have only allowed 25 goals in 27 games and rank first in the nation in scoring defense (0.93). He is also a key part of the penalty-killing unit, which ranks fourth in the nation (.908). On the opposite end of the ice, Lally has 35 points on 12 goals and 23 assists. He is 16th in the nation in assists per game (0.85) and 22nd in points per game (1.30). Lally's plus 44 ranking is the best in the SUNYAC and earned him first team all-league recognition. Lally has played 86 career games. He has 71 points on 18 goals and 53 assists.
 
Hobart will be back in action on Saturday, March 7, when it welcomes 13th-ranked Oswego to The Cooler. Faceoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 5-12. Children 4 and under are free. Students from any of the SUNYAC member schools are admitted free with a valid ID, including HWS students. Tickets will go on sale one hour before the opening faceoff.